The Day Menma Went Away
by Quilx
Summary: Five years after her initial death, Meiko Honma appears before the troubled Jinta Yadomi. Now, after months of having fun with the Super Peace Busters trying to get her wish granted, the group is faced yet again with having to say goodbye to the girl they loved.


**A/N: Alright, so, I got the inspiration to write this one while I was YouTubing around and wondered if I would be able to write in words what was seen on screen with the ending of Anohana. I really enjoyed writing this one and I hope you guys enjoy reading it.**

 **Regards~ Quil**

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No, it just couldn't be. She can't just leave, I have to find her, _we_ have to find her. The Super Peace Busters united once again to see Menma off properly, she can't just disappear without saying a goodbye. We all tried so hard to see her off, but I just can't let her go now, these past 3 months have been the happiest I've been because she actually came back. Menma came back! But now she's hiding out here in the forest that us Super Peace Busters claimed our secret base in.

Menma, the girl who I thought was just a stroke hallucination in the midst of the heat of summer, the girl who loved me for who I was, the girl who died all those years ago because _I_ was too scared to love her back. She couldn't swim, it's all my fault she slipped and fell into the river, she was chasing me because I was the idiot that decided to run away from loving her, she slipped, but I kept running…

But she came back. Five years later, she came back as what I thought was a manifestation of my stress, I was the only one who could see her, but she was so real. She told me she needed a wish granted, but she couldn't remember what. We had spent months together trying to formulate some idea as to what that wish was, but as time went on, I just couldn't let her go. I was selfish, I wanted her to stay with me forever, I wanted to keep her by my side. Even if Anaru, Yukiatsu, Tsuruko, or Poppo couldn't see or hear her, she was still real. She could write to let them know she was there. But she spoke to me, I could see her, she wasn't a child anymore, she was grown up like the rest of us.

When we thought her wish was for us to make a firework explode in honor of her, and we were absolutely sure of it, I almost stopped it all. I almost ran in and stopped the rocket from firing, but I was too late. Even then, she never disappeared like she promised, I didn't think I could be so relieved and I felt terrible for it. Tears fell that day because I was so close to losing Menma again and I don't think my heart could have taken another blow of losing her again.

When the tear fell, realization hit her. She remembered the wish she wanted to get granted, but it wasn't hers. My mom, the woman who nurtured the entirety of the Super Peace Busters, made a dying wish to Menma while we were outside. I couldn't cry, I didn't want to show how weak I was to the woman who needed me as a grownup.

Menma's job…was to make me cry. Make a tear fall for once since before my mom passed away. She never got to grant it while she was alive so her stubborn self decided to pass on going onto the afterlife until I shed a tear. Meiko Honma, this girl made my mom a promise and she wasn't going to give up before she was able to make that wish granted.

That takes us to now. The Super Peace Busters decided to go back to the Hidden Base in the forest to recreate that fateful day the way it was supposed to be done. For me to tell Menma that I loved her instead of bursting out the doors and down the steep ridge, the ridge that killed her. I went back to get Menma, but she was frail, her manifestation was failing and she couldn't fight off the call of paradise now that her objective was complete. The day wasn't supposed to be recreated the night we came up with the plan, but I had to rush it and call everyone else to the Hidden Base before Menma disappeared for good.

I carried her to the Hidden Base on my back and we got there last, everyone was in their spots and as I put her down, she disappeared from my eyes. The one and only girl that I wanted to see suddenly turned up missing, but her voice could still be heard, except everyone could hear her now. She suggested a game of hide and seek and that she'd make sure we'd have to find her before we did anything else. Like that her voice faded and she left us to go look for her.

"Menma!"

Everyone was shouting trying to look for her, but she wasn't giving away her spot. This entire forest was her hiding spot. My sandals were digging into my feet by this time and I had to run around the place barefoot.

"Menma!"

Cries of desperation. I can't just lose her like this, I _have_ to find her.

"Menma!" I kept yelling. "Where are you?!"

I was finally tossed a bone.

"I'm still choosing a hiding spot!"

Her voice was weak. She was close to breaking.

I dashed through the forest, the ridge, the hill, the trees, the valley, she was nowhere to be found.

"Menma!"

The chorus of shouts for her name were full of sobs and heavy breathing while everyone was crying and running through the forest.

We were running for hours on end, but she was nowhere to be found. My legs finally gave out at the crest of a hill and I just stood there folded in half, a tree facing directly ahead of me covering the vast amount of foliage behind it.

"Jintan!" I heard Poppo shout behind me. "Did you find her?"

He paused. "Oh my god, your feet."

It was true, my feet were bloody and blistered, but I chose not to answer him. By then, everyone had gathered around behind me. The Super Peace Busters minus one have gathered in the same spot for the first time since the last couple hours of running through the trees. Why? Why is Menma doing this? What's her plan?

Anaru muttered something under her breath behind me, I think she called my name, but I remained there, bent over with tears welling up in my eyes.

"So it's true," Tsuruko's voice cracked behind me. "Menma is already…"

Yukiatsu winced at the prospect that Menma had gone without saying goodbye. He loved her about as much as I did after all. Sobs began being heard around me, Menma was gone.

"What is that?" Anaru called out from behind me pointing at the base of the tree.

I looked up from my spot and saw an assortment of folded pages laid out in a circular formation just a little in front of the tree.

We all walked up to them and each of them had our names printed on the folds of the sheets.

"T-this is from her diary," Anaru realized.

"This writing," Tsuruko followed up. "It's Menma's."

My eyes widened and I immediately went for the piece of paper that had my name on it while everyone else did the same.

I refrained from opening it though, I waited for everyone else to read theirs.

"Dear Tsuruko," Tsuruko read aloud in a shaky voice. "I love how kind you are."

She called out her name once more before being overrun with her own tears.

"Dear Yukiatsu," the note's recipient read. "I love how hardworking you are."

Sobs, sobs that I didn't think Yukiatsu was capable of. He just sat there, on the edge of crying, but not quite teetering over like Tsuruko.

"Dear Poppo," Poppo followed. "I love how funny you are."

Seconds within reading the letter, Poppo shouted sorrowfully. A shout for Menma, a guilty shout for not being there to help her.

"Dear Anaru," Anaru's voice was the shakiest of all. "I love how steady you are."

Tears flowed out of her eyes and landed quickly on her note. She wasn't able to hold back the inevitable weeping for any longer. She clutched the paper close to her heart and broke down immediately.

It was my turn. I opened the note not knowing what to expect from Menma.

"I love you, Jintan," I couldn't take it, but I had to keep going. "It's the 'I want to marry you' type of 'I love you'."

She can't do this. She can't tell me this and expect me to be happy with it. I _needed_ Menma here with me right now, everyone needed Menma here right now. Tears began flowing out and down my cheeks, the hot drops water rapidly making their way down the side of my face.

"What is this?" I worked out of my throat. "What are you doing. Menma? We're playing hide and seek, right? So…it's not over until we've found you, right?!"

Sobs began mixing into my sentences, but I couldn't stop now. Maybe she can still hear me.

"Are you ready?!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and I continued shouting without stop.

Soon enough everyone joined me. She has to be able to hear us. She can't just go away, not now, we can't just say goodbye like this. We shouted our lungs out, but we didn't care.

"I'm ready!"

Everyone stopped, I looked up to find the origin of the shout, but I couldn't see anything.

"That's Menma's voice," my speech wavered.

Everyone was looking straight ahead at the tree.

"Impossible…" Tsuruko couldn't finish her sentence.

"Menma…" Poppo stated tearfully next to me. His eyes suddenly shot up looking straight ahead again.

"Menma!" Anaru gasped in disbelief.

I followed her gaze and stopped at the base of the tree. There at the foot of the tree, in her white dress with a black bow, with her legs extended and her bare feet stretched, Menma was laying there looking at us with a tear-stained face.

"It's really you isn't it, Menma?"

This was the first time Anaru or anyone from the Super Peace Busters other than myself has been able to physically see Menma.

"Menma!" Yukiatsu shouted. "It's really you!"

"I can see her!" Poppo exclaimed.

Everyone began calling out her name in disbelief, but she just stood there with a wide smile on her face. She got to see her friends and her friends finally got to see her. Her smile was one of sorrow, she knew what was to come and so did I.

"If you've found me, that's not what you should shout, right?" Menma slyly smiled as she tearfully stated her sentence.

What does she mean by that? Why that right now?

"I suck at playing hide and seek, you know?"

She began to slowly rise from her spot on the tree and leaned on it for support.

"Right, Jintan?" She looked to me. "Say it properly…"

"What—"

"If you say it properly, a farewell can be done correctly, right?"

I looked at her and I knew her time was running out. Her dress and body began disappearing before my eyes. The "solid" person that was Menma was starting to fade away.

"I read your letter!" Poppo called out from behind me. "I love you too, Menma!"

"Me too!" Tsuruko recovered from her sobs. "I love you, Menma!"

"Menma, I love you!" Anaru had to work hard to get her sentence out without sobbing. Tears were flowing faster down her face.

"You know I love you, Menma!" Yukiatsu painfully cried out. He always claimed to love her more than I did, but at this point it didn't matter.

Everyone's sudden outburst of love managed to make even Menma gasp in shock. New tears were forming at the brim of her eyes.

"A farewell isn't one-sided, right?" Poppo initially asked rhetorically before turning to me. "Right? Jintan?"

A small smile formed on my lips. I closed my eyes and thought about what I was going to say, but to be honest it didn't take much thinking.

"Thank you for granting my mom's wish," I looked up at her. "I love you, Menma."

It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Menma's composure broke and tears started making their way down her cheeks. She just looked at us, in longing, in realization.

"Jintan…" she said in a low voice.

She paused in shock, looking out past me, almost as if lost in a trance. I looked behind me, but there was nothing, I still kept searching like everyone else. She was seeing something that none of us could see. She grimaced in what seemed like pain, as more and more tears made their way out of their homes.

"Jintan," she started again. "I believe that no matter the time, no matter the place, anyone and everyone from the Super Peace Busters can find me. But I realize now, that I want to stay with everyone a whole lot longer!"

I turned back around in shock, tears were freely flowing down her face while she was trying to make her sentences coherent.

"I want to play with you all," she managed to say. "So, I'll be reincarnated someday, and that way I can play with everyone again!"

She was visibly getting more and more feeble and ended up shaking under her own weight, trying to keep herself up and stave off the tears.

"So, since you cried," she hasn't stopped. "And now that you all have said goodbye. I—"

"Ready, and…!" I cried out interrupting her and hoping everyone could follow my line of thinking.

"Menma, we found you!"

She managed one more smile and took herself off the tree.

"And so I've been found," her eyes were shut and tears were working their way out of them. Her pained smile reached across her face and she just stood there with her hands folded in front of her.

The sun shined through her brighter than before. Her job here was done, everyone gathered around me as we watched Menma fade off into paradise.

"Until the very end," her voice could still be heard. "Just know that I love you all."

In saying so, whatever comprised her broke up completely and floated up into the clear blue sky. We all watched, teary-eyed and ready to continue breaking down, but we stayed strong. We stayed strong for each other. We stayed strong for Menma.


End file.
